Recall Tom McKay as Lopatcong Mayor

We can thank many people for getting the first reading of the temporary bonding ordinance completed. The mayor is not one of them, however.

Thank you to Council President Pryor and the Council majority for pushing forward on the temporary bonding ordinance. As Council President Pryor mentioned during the meeting of 2/18/2016 several times, we are the project leaders and this item is a critical path item. And, this ordinance does not commit Lopatcong to actually borrow money without assurances that all funding sources are in place.

Thank you to Engineer Sterbenz for his presentation to council, which gave supporting facts to Council President’s Pryor assertion that this is a critical path item. If construction starts in April, the intersection should be complete by mid-August. It’s already a very tight timeline. We do not have the luxury of playing politics or neglecting to do our duty to protect the residents, especially the hundreds of teen-aged drivers, who will be passing through that intersection.

Thank you to Attorney Campbell for attempting to explain to McKay why Phillipsburg did not send their $100,000 check to us yet. Under the agreement, which McKay signed, it states that the land acquisition costs for Phillipsburg are to be paid out of that initial $100,000 sum. Phillipsburg estimates those costs will total around $40,000 to $50,000. In a perfect world, Phillipsburg could have given Lopatcong the $100,000 and had Lopatcong deal with the real estate transactions for Phillipsburg, but they are choosing to handle it themselves. With the way Lopatcong is being managed by McKay, we certainly cannot argue with them on that!

Mayor Ellis has also explained this matter in his recent Express Times article: